Shoot the Monkey (1D60.30)
Location: 15-3R
Concept/Purpose: Projectile Motion
Procedure/Explanation: Shoot the monkey is a demo showing the rate of descent of free falling
bodies in Earth’s gravitational field. The demo consists of an air gun that fires a brightly colored
pencil at a falling “monkey” (or in our case a large empty coffee can.) It hangs from the ceiling
by means of a small electromagnet. The circuit providing current to the magnet includes a small
strip of aluminum foil that is stretched across the barrel of the gun. When the gun is fired the
projectile breaks the foil cutting off the current to the magnet and the "monkey" starts to fall at
the approximate moment the projectile is fired. Since the only force acting on both the projectile
and the "monkey" is gravity, they both fall at the same rate. As long as the gun was aimed
straight at the "monkey", the two should hit in midair.